Ruling in Iraq keeps haze over politics

BAGHDAD－The political gridlock continues in Iraq after the federal court rejected a demand to dissolve the parliament, complicating the already tense political scene almost 11 months after parliamentary elections last year.

The political disputes have escalated between Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Sadrist Movement, the biggest winner with 73 seats in the parliament after the Oct 10 election, and his rivals in the Coordination Framework, or CF, an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties.

Al-Sadr demanded in the past weeks that the parliament be dissolved and elections held, but his demands were rejected by the CF parties that became the largest bloc after al-Sadr ordered his followers in the Sadrist Movement to withdraw from the parliament in June.